I’m not saying that all Catholics think this, but most do. also sorry if the seahorse is hard to see X—X
Male seahorse get pregnant, but that doesn’t make them trans, they’re unambiguously male. This is a great example of why sex is defined by gamete size. If it weren’t, we couldn’t talk about males and females in any useful way across the animal kingdom.
Clownfish would be a better example as they’re sequential hermaphrodites, but that doesn’t have any bearing on the human sex binary.
*the non-existent human sex binary
This is often a point of confusion, but human sex is binary. There’s edge cases that require clarification as to how they fit into the binary, but don’t disprove it.
Human sexuality overall is complex and that’s why we differentiate gender from sex. The sex binary and gender spectrum complement each other though, and don’t clash.
If you’re interested in learning more, here’s some background reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonochorism
We fall into that category, where we have two body plans, each organized around producing either sperm or ova. Other species have more body plans, such as recognizably distinct males, females, and hermaphrodites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trioecy
Those species are a good contrast. Humans don’t have that variation, and so sex is binary in humans.
There’s literature that explains this specifically in detail, though most of it doesn’t really explicitly talk about it, much like math papers don’t generally explain that integers can be added together.
There’s edge cases that require clarification
Ok, yes. That’s where I believe the binary is false.
You have red, you have blue, and then there’s a bunch of egde cases. To me that’s not the end of the story. I believe purple exists.
How about chickens? If you have some hens without a rooster, you’ve got good chance that one of them will “transform” into a rooster. Especially if you had a rooster but it died.
I’m not aware of that being an actual change in sex. The hen can develop male characteristics, but won’t produce functional sperm.
Neither does trans surgery?
I think we agree. Maybe I was misreading the above comment, but I was just clarifying that “transform” in that sense for chickens is not actually changing sex, and so is a different situation than clownfish.
Frogs and ducks enter the chat
Clown Fish have entered the chat
A whole new vibe to, “plenty of fish in the sea.”
what
I was just looking up if ducks can turn trans and this popped up
What the duck?!
Who keeps their ducks in their prostate?
Mine are stuck, can you help me 👉 👈
Yes
You’re a good pal
Yeah I think it’s ironic that out of all the animals that can change their sex, OP chose one that doesn’t lol.
Also animals being able to change sex does not make them trans. Being transgender has to do with gender identity and its relation to biological sex.
Snails as well
I feel like this misrepresents what trans means, but I’m not educated enough to get into it.
It’s perfectly cis for a male seahorse to give birth. That said, a quick search told me they also change sexes over the course of their life so…
But I was under the impression that part of transitioning was the conscious decision to make a change in line with self perception. I can’t help but think non human animals wouldn’t experience that.
Ah, yeah we can’t really know. Sequential hermaphrodism in chordates however is sometimes used to argue that biological sex isn’t as stable of a construct as some prefer to act like it is, in a similar way to how intersex people are used to express how it isn’t as binary of a concept as culture would have you believe.
I’m not sure you can really apply the biology of sea horses to humans, though.
Like, just because some reptiles can regenerate tails doesn’t mean humans regenerating limbs is natural.
Fair, but you also have to keep in mind that this isn’t any of the rigorous argumentation. This is symbols and discussions with grandma level argumentation.
I have had some success with it. Doubt the guy changed his views, but he stopped using that argument.
also sorry if the seahorse is hard to see
I am emotionally damaged and triggered from seeing this seahorse. It was a very hard thing for me to see.
x–x
In case you wanted the explanation from a 1993 Nirvana T-shirt: “Ever the trendsetter, the sea horse is the sole animal known to man which the male of the species endures the privilege of childbirth. Following a length courtship, a male and female have intercourse during which the female enters the male and lays as many as 200 eggs which are fertilized within the body of the male. After a 5-week gestation period, the male gives birth.”
Cobain rocked lol
Don’t Catholics subscribe to the doctrine of TRANSubstantiation?
Catholics: Eating your young isn’t normal or part of nature.
Nature: Looks like meat is back on the menu, boys!
I’m no longer religious, but Catholics are on the chiller side of the Christian spectrum.
Chill? They’re the more rigorous side for certain but chill feels like an exaggeration. That said, I’m ex catholic and have complicated feelings about them.
Catholic dogma may be relatively strict, I’m not sure, I haven’t extensively studied other sects of Christianity. But Catholic people are, in my experience, pretty chill. If anything they’re a much more “love the sinner, hate the sin” kind of bunch. It’s the evangelicals you gotta watch out for.
Episcopalians, which is basically Catholicism-lite, are even more chill. They were the first to allow gay people to be reverends.
That’s generally true, except for the overwhelming violence sometimes. Also there’s the thing with fascists converting to catholicism in America.
In a different form of Catholics having no fucking chill, is the aesthetics and relationship to suffering. Catholicism has a religious fetishization of suffering, which can produce really cool art from The Locked Tomb books (some of the major plot points include specifically catholic dogma) to the gilded human remains, as well as producing some weirder stuff like the play Sancta Susana, religious autoflagelation, and just so very many billable hours for therapists relating to guilt.
But returning from the dead is A-OK!
As long as you’re the same gender, yes. And didn’t touch you dead wiener, of course.
What if I touched the dead weiner?
YUCK! NECROPHILE!
on this planet, with this mankind? dunno
Oh hey, I was going to be pedantic but apparently seahorses are also sequential hermaphrodites
I thought trans not being a natural thing was an agreed statement at this point in time?
